Wednesday, 19 March 2014

A handy,expanded,compilation of ,Manchester based,Object Musics first years singles.Object Music was a Manchester based record label active 1978-81. It more
or less grew directly out of the Manchester Musicians' Collective,
which initially included Dick Witts [Passage], classical and electronic
composers (respectively) Simon Holt and Trevor Wishart, and Tony Friel,
whose band The Fall had their first gig at a Collective meeting.Also added to this file are all the singles Object Music released before and after the original LP,(courtesy of Mutant Sounds who have saved me a lot of work,thanks lads we miss you).It obviously
includes the Spherical Objects, but also the great proto-indie pop of Grow Up and the
slightly less great Steve Miro. A document of what 1978 sounded like, of
musicians trying to escape the straight jacket of three chord thrash;
many tried and failed.Here are a few of my choice picks from this treasure trove of sonic delights:

Contact – "Future / Past EP" (Object Music OM11) 1979:

Tony Friel has appeared on three of the greatest e.p.’s of the
Independant era, “Bingo Masters Breakout”, “New Love Songs”(see beelow), and the
retro-futurism of this e.p. by Contact; which Friel formed, with Duncan
Prestbury, after splitting with The Passage. It has the naivety and
innocence that disappeared from the records of The Fall and The
Passage, notably after Friel left these groups. It suitably has an off
kilter version of The Seeds classic “Nite Time”, another great Le Rock
Naiveté exponent of yesteryear. It also has the honour of having a track
featured on one of the Messthetics compilations(“Someone Like You”). A
Great low tech re-enactment of a future that would never happen.
Unfortunately the real future became the one we have now; where the only
popular musical advance is for women to get their tits and arses out,
and boys expose their abdominal muscles. Intelligence has never been as
marginalised and frowned upon. What was so great about music from 76 to
83 was basically how sexless it was. It was there but you had to make an
effort to find it.

Love Song is my favourite Object Music tune, which was unfortunate
enough not to have been the subject of a BBC ban. It could have been a
hit in 1978, with its puerile references to certain sex acts; but its
far more intelligent than that. Its cynical message is about the
selfishness of a sexual relationship, which are largely based on a
narcissistic need to be worshipped and to be in control.This is a Love
Song 1978 style.This early Passage release, when Fall founder member
and the man responsible for naming Paedo-Peels' favourite band, Tony
Friel, was still in the group; finds a band still finding its own
identity. But its an identity than is far more attractive to the Passage
of 1980 onwards, where Dick Witts' ego takes over, and they became an irritatingly over-clever version of the Pet Shop Boys.

Tony Friels swansong with the band, produced by Flying Lizard David Cunningham. Good raw minimal DIY pop. If Tony leaves a band you know they're good,but he usually takes the good with him!

Spherical Objects ‎– "The Kill / The Knot" (Object Music OM01) 1978

As I now officially "like" The Spherical Objects,after recently playing their first LP after buying it 35 years ago,hating it,then filing it away until 2013; I searched out this early single from the same one day session that produced the first album. Predictably, its more of the same, second division Blue Orchids fronted by a nasally challenged Roland Rat(Steve Solomar,who incidentally is now a woman!), but still attractive in its sheer Non-rockness. No foot on monitor posturing for these chaps. Nice cover art too; note the ransom note lettering for the singles title to attract the punks, and the stencil lettering to attract Clash fans. Excellent marketing tools in '78 when the flood of releases were just beginning.All this and a lyric sheet to sing-a-long to, with words that suggest a fashionable message to boot! Art skool punk that borrowed a few tricks from that nice Mr Capitalism man.

Track Listing(not necessarily in the correct order,but it is chronological.):

I know I'm some considerable time out of synch with this post but was just looking for something on The Passage and came to this. Wonderful. Love the blog Jonny. One problem though - I just can't get to the music when I download it tells me that the destination path is too long, and then goes on to say Rename the Compressed (zipped) Folder and try again. This is beyond my minute techie brain so can you help or have any suggestions. Much appreciated Gra

Yes, good stuff in this expanded version of the 'Objectivity' compilation.Dunno whats going wrong at your end though?...I assume you have the adequate win RAR unzipping program? Should be very straight forward?....most of the Object records stuff is on here somewhere.